We headed over to Howell, MI last night for the Michigan Challenge Balloon Festival. This is our second time attending and the weather was much better last night than at our previous visit.

I don't think watching ballons take off and examining their interesting color combinations and designs will ever get old! Hopefully I will overcome my fear of heights one day and take a ride without getting queasy!

One of Jon's most favorite hobbies is bonsai. He is always fiddling with plants and acquiring new specimens. It's the perfect hobby for him because he is such a patient guy!

He had been begging me to make him a wrap for all of his tools for ages. I knew he was serious when he sent me links to wraps he found online that he liked and dimensions for his dream wrap!

I made this wrap for him for Christmas and it went together quickly (in 30 minutes!). This project requires:Twill tapeBacking fabricSturdy canvasDoublefold bias tape

I cut out 2 rectangles of fabric in his desired dimensions (one piece of canvas, one piece of printed cotton). Then I cut out a half rectangle of canvas and lined the top edge with bias tape.I also cut a smaller rectangle in canvas and lined 3 sides in bias tape for the top flap.I placed the half piece of canvas over the full piece of canvas and sewed pockets for each tool.Then I sandwiched the canvas with the fabric and edged it with the bias tape. To finish it off, I attached a piece of twill tape folded in half on one side of the wrap.

Our final stop on our trip was to Milford, CT. Our newly transplanted friends, Ben and Hannah, are from Milford, so they told us what to check out while we were in town. First we had dinner at Rainbow Gardens and then we headed over to the duck pond to check out the birds.

We traveled to East Haddam, CT to visit the home of Sherlock Holmes actor and director, William Gilette. I've visited the castle a few times before and knew that Jon would love it. He did and now would like to take a castle tour of Ireland, naturally.

William Gilette was an eccentric man and filled his home with lots of beautiful carvings, glass, and tricks for his guests.

I grew up in Middletwon, CT, so I took Jon on a little tour of my old town. Our first stop was at the waterfall just down the street from my old house.

My dad used to take lot of pictures of us in front of here when we were growing up. I remember waiting in agony for him to get the settings right so we could just be done taking pictures already. Little did I know that I would inherit his annoying photographer gene years later!

The highlight of my visit to the city was seeing my old public library. My mom used to take us here all the time and I loved exploring the place! It was fun to see where the first seeds of my career as a librarian were planted.

The adult reading room.

The youth room. The picture book shelves are such a great way for kids to browse books. I wish my library could afford to install shelves like these.

My sister, Ruth, and I hung out on this rainbow sculpture all the time!

We had a lovely lunch at this fantastic vegetarian restaurant, It's Only Natural, before heading to our next destination.

After Vermont, we drove through New Hampshire to Portland, ME. We had a fun time exploring the cute shops in the city, eating at delicious restaurants (Yosaku and The Green Elephant), and soaking up the bay.

We drove around looking for a good spot to watch the sunset and found ourselves on a tour of luxury oceanfront property before we ended up at this public beach. After shooting this photo, we were promptly eaten alive by tons of little black gnats and got the heck out of there!

We took a schooner ride in the Casco Bay. It was my first time on a sailboat and it was amazing. We were clipping along at a great speed and there was no pesky engine noise to spoil the atmosphere. We were able to bring along our own food and drinks and enjoy a picnic on the boat.

Jon loved it so much that he's looking into starting sailing lessons soon!

We headed up to Freeport, ME to the headquarters of LL Bean, which is open 24 hours a day. This is what happens when we shop while we're tired...Jon lays down to test out travel pillows and gets up minutes later.

Our first stop was in Killington, Vermont where we stayed at the Inn at Long Trail before and after hiking the Appalachian Trail. Thoughts of being able to eat their delicious French toast helped us get through our last day on the trail! (see more photos of the Inn here)

Ever the overachievers, we picked the "strenuous" hike and overdid ourselves a bit. In the span of three days, it took us 18 hours to hike 22 miles and climb and descend seven different 2500+ foot peaks. We were exhausted!

The trail was gorgeous and all of our pain and agony brought us many wonderful views and nature-y smells (mmm...pine needles!).

The trail was really steep at this point. Steep enough to warrant an extension ladder...such a funny moment to encounter this!

We saw lots of moss covered quartz - so pretty!

No foot bridges here...

I don't think I've ever been more excited to see a mileage sign...4.2 miles to go until the end of our hike!

Jon has finally turned me into a backpacking lover! He started backpacking a few years ago, but I didn't have any time to join him on his trips because of my busy work and school schedule.

Jon, always up for a trip to REI, set me up with a new pack and some other random gear and we had our first adventure together over Memorial Day weekend. We drove up to Manistee and did a fairly easy 12 mile round trip, overnight hike along the Manistee River trail.

Now that I've gone backpacking, I'm pretty sure that I never want to go regular State Park camping again. Being so close to nature and so far away from technology is such a nice break from day to day life. And, setting up the tent in the middle of the forest away from other backpackers makes the trip much more peaceful! I'm pretty bummed that I didn't get into backpacking sooner but super excited to have a new hobby to enjoy with Jon!